Agile Portugal - Liberating Structures - An Antidote to Zombie Scrum

Scrum is HUGE! It’s massively adopted by organizations. That’s of course awesome! Except for the fact that many organizations and teams think they’re doing Scrum, while they’re not. Sure, they’ve got all the Scrum roles, events and artifacts in place. But there’s no working software at the end of the Sprint. There’s no drive to improve. No involvement of customers and users during development. This might look like Scrum from the surface. But it isn’t. This is Zombie-Scrum, and we need to stop it!

During the presentation, you’ll learn more about the causes and symptoms of Zombie-Scrum. Even more important, you’ll discover an antidote: Liberating Structures. Please note: this presentation isn’t for the faint of heart. Be brave. Join the resistance and help us fight Zombie-Scrum!

Transcript

1. Liberating Structures An Antidote to Zombie Scrum Agile Portugal, Porto May 31, 2019
2. Awesome Energizer!
3. A Word of Warning... Chances are, you will be... • Overwhelmed → by learning a new language • Shocked → by the state of Scrum • Confused → a presentation about Liberating Structures? • Annoyed → 1 minute conversations?! • Terrified → Scrum Zombies in the room? • Even more confused → Liberating Strategy? • Completely lost → Strategy Knotworking?!
4. Purpose Presentation • Create awareness • Offer inspiration for experimentation • Trigger useful conversations
5. The State of Scrum(.org) Scrum is HUGE! It’s massively adopted by organizations! Some numbers: • 256 Professional Scrum Trainers worldwide • 143.000 people trained around the world • 3.250.000 people have taken the open assessments • 300.000 people are certified • 100+ Scrum books • 10.000.000+ Scrum articles
6. The Real State of Scrum Many organizations think they’re doing Scrum… But it’s not Scrum… It’s...
7. Zombie Scrum!
8. Zombie Scrum check
9. Meet the Zombie Scrum Research Team Barry Overeem - Doctor Stubble Christiaan Verwijs - Captain Curly Johannes Schartau - Lord Red Beard
10. Cause of Zombie Scrum • Complex organizational structures • Plan → build → test → run • “Business” and “IT” • Cherry picking Scrum • Tools, tools, tools • Maturity models... • “Agile” Contracts
11. This isn’t cause #1… What do you think is the #1 cause?
12. Zombie Scrum Cause #1 People often don't have a clue WHY they are using Scrum
13. We use Scrum because...
14. The Million Dollar Question How to prevent or fix this #1 cause of Zombie Scrum?
15. The Silver Bullet Answer Transform the whole process of strategy-making for implementing Scrum by using Liberating Structures
16. Liberating Structures? Say what?
17. Liberating Structures are... “A language for interaction in groups” - Christiaan Verwijs
18. Why Liberating Structures? Because the way we interact in groups is broken!
19. Too structured and inhibiting
20. Go Wild!
21. Recognize your Scrum Events?
22. Liberating Structures to the rescue
23. Some Examples...
24. How We Have Used It Individual coaching Team coaching Growing communities Public meetups Growing The Liberators Scrum.org classes Team kickoffs Team reboots Scrum events Family life Scrum Master Learning Journey
25. Most important, we’ve used it for... Tackling Zombie Scrum cause #1
26. How? Strategy Knotworking A collection of Liberating Structures
27. Strategy Knotworking “An approach for shaping the future while creatively adapting in the moment.” - Keith McCandless & Johannes Schartau
28. The 6 Questions
29. How to Answer These Questions? Purpose Context Challenge Baseline Ambition Action & Evaluation
30. The Key Success Factor... Involve the entire organization!
31. “Shaping answers together builds ownership, trust, and momentum for action. It creates a story that is authored, owned and operated by everyone.” - Keith McCandless & Johannes Schartau
32. Liberating Structures are about scaling. Scaling conversations.
33. The result... By using Strategy Knotworking organizations… • Started doing Scrum • Continued doing Scrum • Stopped doing Scrum Bottom line: less Zombie Scrum! Some examples are...
34. “Awesome! But I still don’t know what Liberating Structures are...”
35. Join the Zombie Scrum resistance!
36. Join a Liberating Structures User Group
37. Join a Strategy Knotworking Workshop
38. Download the free app
39. A bit of reflection
40. Something new I’ve learned is...
41. Something I already knew, but got confirmed is...
42. A question that emerges is...
43. A good, yet brave next step for me is...
44. Obrigado! Força Portugal!
45. ‘Unleashing Organisational Superpowers’ As The Liberators, we take a radical approach to organizational change. Rather than taking the lead, we empower people within organizations to drive change themselves. As facilitators we create space where people can tackle difficult challenges together while also having fun. Inspired by the fields of complexity science and organizational psychology, we use Scrum and Liberating Structures to deliver fast-paced interactions, high involvement and creative destruction. With a strong focus on radical transparency, an experiential approach and creating a shared purpose, we put organizations in a position to thrive on complexity rather than being defeated by it. Are you ready to leave your comfort zone and unleash your superpowers?
46. Unleashing Organisational Superpowers